Sister Margaret Grant, 43, Attorney

August 03, 1985

Mass for Sister Margaret Grant, 43, a Roman Catholic nun and former science teacher who became the chief attorney for Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, will be said at 9:30 a.m. Saturday in the chapel of Bethlehem Center, 1515 W. Ogden Ave., La Grange Park.

Sister Margaret, a member of the Congregation of St. Joseph, died Thursday in Bethlehem Center, the mother house of her order.

Since 1979, Sister Margaret, known to friends and associates as ``Sister Margie,`` had been vice president and general counsel for the Lutheran Institute of Human Ecology, parent organization of Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, one of the largest Lutheran institutions in the area. She also was a director of Augustana Hospital, 2035 N. Lincoln Ave.

Sister Margaret obtained the legal post at Lutheran General shortly after earning a law degree from Northern Illinois University and being admitted to the Illinois bar at age 37. The Congregation of St. Joseph gave her permission to hold the full-time job with the Lutheran organization, a member of the order said Friday.

In law school, Sister Margaret specialized in ethical and legal questions that apply to hospitals. She was the author of a ``Compendium of Illinois State Statutes Affecting Hospitals,`` published by the Illinois Institute of Continuing Education.

In her final year of law school she received the Corpus Juris Secondum award from West Publishing Co. for her contributions to legal scholarship.

She began her career as a biology and chemistry teacher. From 1963 until she began studying law in 1975, she taught those subjects at several high schools and colleges, first in New York and New Jersey and then in the Chicago area.

From 1969 to 1975 she was an instructor and assistant professor of biology at St. Xavier College on the South Side.

Sister Margaret is survived by her parents, Joseph and Margaret Grant;